ON HEMP. 



177 



If the weather is warm, and the water soft, nine or ten days 

 are generally sufficient for that purpose ; but in hard water, and 

 cold weather, between fourteen and twenty-one days may be 

 necessary. 



Stagnant is preferred to running water, not only as producing 

 the same effect in less time, but also because running and spring 

 water make the harle red and towey : and of stagnant water large 

 are preferred to small bodies, because they have been found to give 

 the harle a clearer or whiter colour. 



Fish-ponds must be avoided, because the fish would be destroy- 

 ed ; and also such places as cattle are watered at, if they are so 

 small as that the whole mass may be impregnated, since it would 

 then be not only unpalatable but unwholesome. 



A slimy or muddy bottom for the steep is preferred, and such 

 only avoided, for being particularly prejudicial, as are either morassy 

 or metallic, or as appear to contain cold springs. 



In the southern parts of Poland, steeping is* not practised at all, 

 on the supposition that the harle is thereby weakened, and the 

 colour darkened ; but experience seems to have ascertained, that it 

 does not produce either of these pernicious effects, unless improper- 

 ly managed : as, for example, by using hard instead of soft water, 

 or letting the mass lie too long in the steep. Instead of steeping, 

 they there dry the stalks in the sun : but as, in this case, the dressing- 

 is more laborious, consequently more expensive, and also attended 

 with more brakage of the harle, there is the less reason to doubt of 



a a ; the 



